ONE:"Oh, f?atherd?an't be so hard on us. The Lord knows wot'll become of us if you turn us out now. It 'ud have been better if we'd gone five years agoRealf[Pg 440] wur a more valiant man then nor wot he is now. He'll never be able to start ag?unhe ?un't fit fur it."
"Backfield he scarcely takes any notice of me nowalways thinking about his farm. Talks of nothing but hops and oats. Would you believe it, Mrs. Ditch, but he hardly ever looks at this dear little Fanny. He cares for his boys right enough, because when they're grown up they'll be able to work for him, but he justabout neglects his girliethat's what he does, he neglects her. The other night, there she was crying and sobbing her little heart out, and he wouldn't let me send for the doctor. Says he can't afford to have the doctor here for nothing. Nothing, indeed!...""Not a foot nearer, Master Calverley, for all the gold in England. Why, you are standing just where the poor lady and her babe were buried!""We can go back by Corkwood across the marshes. It'll be quicker, and we shan't have no crowd spanneling round."Harry was no more his mother's favourite son. She was not the type of woman to whom a maimed child is dearer than half a dozen healthy ones. On the contrary he filled her with a vague terror and repulsion. She spoke to him gently, tended him carefully, even[Pg 102] sometimes forced herself to caress himbut for the most part she avoided him, feeling as she did so a vague shame and regret.
